Citrix Unveils New XenServer Licensing Model, Partners With NetApps

Citrix Systems on Monday unveiled a new pricing model that charges per server rather than per socket, regardless of the number of sockets or processing cores on the system, and regardless of the size of the server. The company also released a solution for NetApp storage environments.

The new pricing allows customers to deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines per server at a single price, and applies to all editions of XenServer, including of XenServer 4.1 that was also officially released on Monday.

A beta version of XenServer 4.1 was introduced in February and is a new addition to Citrix's server virtualization product line since the company completed the acquisition of XenSource last quarter. Another new product still in beta, XenServer Platinum Edition, is slated for general release next month.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company said that typical server virtualization solutions fees are based on the number of CPU sockets on each server, which is complex and costly.

"We've had a lot of feedback about pricing per number of sockets and decided to make a change to make things simpler for OEM and channel partners," said Frank Artale, vice president of product development at Citrix and former XenSource vice president. "Our goal is to deliver more partnerships."

Citrix is hoping that its new products, together with an expanding list of resellers and strategic infrastructure partners, make virtualization easier and more affordable for customers, as well as provide greater ROI associated with virtualization.

Customers can download a free 30-day trial of the new Citrix XenServer 4.1. XenServer product with prices starting at $600 per server for an annual license and $900 per server for a perpetual license. XenServer Express also remains available as a free download from the same Website.

Additionally, Citrix said it has expanded its partnership with data management solutions provider NetApp, in a marriage that provides both server virtualization and storage virtualization that are included in Citrix XenServer 4.1.

The partnership's first offering is the Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP, a certified solution providing customers with virtualized storage within Citrix XenServer environments. The solution centrally manages storage configuration and provisioning in a single the XenServer management console.

Data ONTAP provides services such as thin provisioning, cloning, replication, backup and recovery directly from the XenServer management console. The Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP is included with XenServer 4.1 and now is available for no additional charge to Citrix and NetApp customers.